This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 from an application entitled BROADBAND LIGHT SOURCE USING SEED-BEAM earlier filed in the Korean Industrial Property Office on the Jul. 21, 1999, and there duly assigned Serial No. 29516/1999, a copy of which is annexed hereto.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a light source for measurement of the characteristics of an optical device, and more particularly to a broadband light source using a rare earth ion-doped optical fiber.
2. Related Art
Wavelength division multiplex (WDM) transmission is an information transmission scheme using optical fibers in which the wavelength area of an optical fiber is separated into a plurality of channels, the channels are multiplexed, and thus signals at different wavelengths are transmitted through the optical fiber at the same time, to thereby increase information transmission capacity.
A plurality of optical amplifiers are used between a transmitter and a receiver in a wavelength division multiplex transmission system to compensate for signal attenuation resulting from long distance transmission.
I have found that it would be desirable to improve a light source for measurement of the characteristics of an optical device. Efforts have been made to improve optics-related devices.
Exemplars of recent efforts in the art include U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,309 for An Optical and Process for Amplifying an Optical Signal Propagating in a Fiber Optic issued to Lawrence et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,652,763 for A Mode Locked Laser Diode in a High Power Solid State Regenerative Amplifier and Mount Mechanism issued to Delfyett, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,303 for A System for Amplifying an Optical Pulse Using a Diode-Pumped, Q-Switched, Intracavity-Doubled Laser to Pump an Optical Amplifier issued Weston et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,582 for A Fiber Source for Seeding an Ultrashort Optical Pulse Amplifier issued to Clark, U.S. Pat. No. 5,861,973 for An Optical Amplifier for Correctively Amplifying Optical Signals Having a Plurality of Multiplexed Wavelengths issued to Inagaki et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,963,363 for A System and Method for Amplifying an Optical Pulse and Pumping Laser Therefor issued to Weston et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,309 for A System and Method for Amplification and Wavefront Compensation of Depolarized Optical Beams issued to Rockwell, U.S. Pat. No. 5,689,595 for A Rare Earth-doped Fiber Amplifier Assemblies for Fiberoptic Networks issued to Pan, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,420 for An Optical Fiber Amplifier issued to Inagaki et al.
While these recent efforts provide advantages, I note that they fail to adequately provide an improved broadband light source using seed-beam.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made in an effort to solve the problems occurring in the related art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a broadband light source which can reduce the strength difference between the output lights per wavelength by heightening the strength of the output light corresponding to the L-band of the light source for measurement, and thus reduce the measurement error per wavelength.
In order to achieve the above object and others, according to the present invention, there is provided a broadband light source for measurement using a seed-beam and having a rare earth ion-doped optical fiber, comprising a seed-beam light source for outputting a seed-beam of a predetermined band of wavelength, a first optical coupler for combining the seed-beam and a pumping light and making a combined light incident to a front of the rare earth ion-doped optical fiber, a first pumping light source for providing the pumping light to the first optical coupler, a second optical coupler for making the input pumping light incident to a rear of the rare earth ion-doped optical fiber, a second pumping light source for providing the pumping light to the second optical coupler, and an output terminal for radiating the light outputted through the rear of the rare earth ion-doped optical fiber.
In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a broadband light source for measurement using a seed-beam and having a rare earth ion-doped optical fiber, comprising a first optical coupler for making an input first pumping light incident to a front of the rare earth ion-doped optical fiber, a first pumping light source for providing the first pumping light to the first optical coupler, a second optical coupler for making an input second pumping light incident to a rear of the rare earth ion-doped optical fiber, a second pumping light source for providing the second pumping light to the second optical coupler, a seed-beam light source for outputting the seed-beam of a predetermined band of wavelength, a seed-beam coupler for making the seed-beam incident to the rear of the rare earth ion-doped optical fiber, and an output terminal for radiating the light outputted through the rear of the rare earth ion-doped optical fiber.
To achieve these and other objects in accordance with the principles of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention provides an apparatus, comprising: a seed-beam light source outputting a seed-beam of a predetermined band of wavelength; a first optical coupler combining said seed-beam with a first pumping light to form first combined light; a rare earth ion-doped optical fiber having a front side and a rear side, said first optical coupler guiding said first combined light to be incident to said front side of said rare earth ion-doped optical fiber; a first pumping light source supplying said first pumping light to said first optical coupler; a second optical coupler guiding second pumping light to be incident to said rear side of said rare earth ion-doped optical fiber; a second pumping light source supplying said second pumping light to said second optical coupler; and an output terminal radiating light outputted through said rear side of said rare earth ion-doped optical fiber.
To achieve these and other objects in accordance with the principles of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention provides a broadband light source apparatus for measurement using a seed-beam, comprising: a rare earth ion-doped optical fiber having a front and a rear; a first optical coupler guiding a first pumping light to be incident to said front of said rare earth ion-doped optical fiber; a first pumping light source providing said first pumping light to said first optical coupler; a second optical coupler guiding a second pumping light to be incident to said rear of said rare earth ion-doped optical fiber; a second pumping light source providing said second pumping light to said second optical coupler; a seed-beam light source outputting the seed-beam of a predetermined band of wavelength; a seed-beam coupler guiding the seed-beam to be incident to said rear of said rare earth ion-doped optical fiber; and an output terminal radiating light outputted through said rear of said rare earth ion-doped optical fiber.
To achieve these and other objects in accordance with the principles of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention provides a light-emitting apparatus using an optical fiber, said apparatus comprising: an optical fiber having a front side and a rear side; a first optical coupler guiding a first pumping light to be incident to said front side of said optical fiber; a first pumping light source providing said first pumping light to said first optical coupler; a seed-beam light source outputting a seed-beam to said optical fiber, said seed-beam having a predetermined band of wavelength; a first optical isolator being positioned adjacent to said seed-beam light source, said optical isolator preventing light outputted from said optical fiber from being incident to said seed-beam light source; and an output terminal radiating the light outputted through said rear side of said optical fiber.
The present invention is more specifically described in the following paragraphs by reference to the drawings attached only by way of example. Other advantages and features will become apparent from the following description and from the claims.